TVPaint and HDV

[Alan]

I'm ever hopeful that eventually I shall get my CBPaint with all the features of TVPaint. In the meantime I will continue to learn and experiment with my demo TVPaint, and it is very good.
I'm using it in conjunction with Vegas9 Platinum.

My question is, can I input an HD file? So far I have failed. I guess it has to be an uncompressed file so that I can overlay an animation on to a short clip. Is it possible, have I missed something in my experiments?

Alan

[Paul Fierlinger]

How are you exporting the file from Vegas? What's the format or codec?

[Alan]

The format is. 1440 x 1080 .m2t
I have no problem with .avi
Alan

[Paul Fierlinger]

So what happens when you navigate to this file from Vegas to open project?

[Alan]

It imports into Vegas and plays.

Only one frame imports into TVPaint via new and import footage, even though I choose a number of frames to import.

[Paul Fierlinger]

I don't think you are doing it right. You should import the entire file as an AVI and a new layer. Wait, which version of TVP are you testing this on because I now wonder if it's at all possible to do this with a trial version -- someone else should respond to this issue.

[slowtiger]

Successful import of video files all depends on video format and codec.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Any MPEG works for me. Or QT Animation, which is uncompressed, as is Photo or Motion JPEG -- all uncompressed formats. Then import (open) the entire file in TVP.

[Fabrice]

Hi Alan,

TVP should be ablle to import .m2t files.
However, please can you post a very short files, with a very few images inside ? We have no such files here to test the import properly.

[malcooning]

When I capture from my Canon camcorder into Vegas I get M2T files.
It's a good compression of HDV files, which allows for realtime editing (in Vegas anyhow), and also smooth playback in a media player.
TVP can import M2T, but not without problems. When I import M2T the responsiveness of TVP goes down, and often it just freezes.
Also, the progress indicator stays on 0% regardless of the progress.
So, we can deduct that it is buggy for the moment.
I'm attaching a 1 sec long m2t file.

[Paul Fierlinger]

The same happened to me and I get only one frame to show on my timeline even though I can see more frames in the import preview, but I wonder why you have the sound track attached. Have you ever tried to detach the sound in Vegas before you export the clip?

[Fabrice]

Thanks Asaf, we have made some tests.

It seems that TVP can not properly import .m2t at the moment.

Can you convert .m2t to .avi with Vegas ?

[malcooning]

Have you ever tried to detach the sound in Vegas before you export the clip?

sure. it's easy to do. just thought it's better to leave it on in this case for sake of testing.

Can you convert .m2t to .avi with Vegas ?

It's no problem, that's the typical workaround. Just m2t is straight-from-camera and its compressor allows to play it back quite easily. most other HD encoders tend to be heavier to edit. but that's fine.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Asaf, I know how to split the sound track from the picture; I was just wondering why you didn't do it for the test.
As I was telling Alan, I thought he should just export a straight uncompressed avi but I don't know if he has that option in Vegas 9 Platinum, which is a consumer product. In Vegas Pro 9 the way to go is Video for Windows, Default Template -- which is uncompressed and which works fine in TVP.

[Alan]

Thanks. The Platinum version will render as Video for windows, I'll have ago this evening.

Alan